The Defiant Agents

er the writhing girl whose strength was now such tha

is holding her. She is being drawn to it o

h mindless and will-less answer did not touch the animals. And neither Apache felt it. So perhaps only Kaydessa's people were subject to it

he is one of their kind. Why not let her go to them, unless you fear she will talk." His hand

e trouble was efficiently eliminated. In Tsoay

ppeal to that savage instinct for self-preservation. "But you are right, since she has tried to answer this summons, we cannot force her with us. Therefore, do you tak

d y

de and learn all I can of this settlemen

s! If we have warning, we can hold our own countr

y warrior boasts for the future. Tell Buck what we have discovered. Also say I will join you before," Travi

ese Reds t

sort out the thoughts of a dead man?" He did not intend his future to end as a

hat for all his seeming ease with the animals, the younger scout had little more liking for t

g her head at an acute and painful angle, only to face the same direction in which she had been tied. There was no brea

From the attitude of the coyotes, he assumed that those using the machine had not made any attempt to come close. They might no

e out of range and she would awake from the knockout, free again. Although she was not light, he co

The going was rough, and carrying the girl reduced his advance t

and knives against modern armament was no contest at all. And it would only be a matter of time before exploration o

s prolonging the time before they were discovered. But that would only postpone the inevita

g it as Naginlta worried a prey, tearing out and devouring the more delicate portions. Every bit of sense and prudence argued against such

ck he could see ahead, chiseled into high relief by the winds. In its lee they would have protection from

ere half open, and still he could not be sure whether the

yde

was no recognition of his identity in her gaze, only surprise and fear-th

er!" Travis made that an order, an emphatic appe

she was making naked on he

u-F

ef, his alarm subsiding.

responde

ut, her puzzlement gro

her in the

out bewilderment. "

he outlined what had happ

her lips as if she were biting furiously into its flesh to stil

ree now,"

d to speak. "You brought me away from the

rd not

wed at the stone beside her, pulling up to her feet. "Let us

have they any way of knowing that they had you

d, some of the panic a

lifted to the wastelands before th

nknown wilderness until they could be sure Kaydessa was no longer susceptible to that call, or that they were safely beyond its beamed radius. There was the cha

bare half dozen ration tablets.

thought, and he discovered he could not spur himself on to a pace better than a walk. Now and again one of the coyotes, usually Nalik'ideyu, would come into view, express impatience in both stance and mental signal, and then be gone again. The A

m with a trained eye before his archaeological studies of the recent past gave him a reason for the faint marks. This crack in the mountain's skin m

, perplexed, more so when he went down on his knees and ran his fingers along one of those ancient tool marks. He was certain it was very old. Inside of him anticipation b

a knelt beside him, f

red why. There was no reason to believe the road makers could hear him when perh

ense that here time was subtly telescoped, that past and present might be meet

her voice s

your people or the Reds ever find any tr

d. Before they discovered that we could be free, they sent out parties-to hunt, they said-but afterward they always asked many questions about t

hey may give us of the people who piled them. Bu

now what they mig

the marks on the ledge were a pledge of greater discoveries to come. He must find where

-gray bodies came out of the tangled brush, bounding up to the ledge. Toget

be deadly traps, and only good fortune had prevented their closing on Terran explorers. If the ape-t

el way of the ledge, disappearing around a curve fitted

rge one, but high. Rounding the curve, they came into a fine mist of sp

a little cry, held out her hands to the purling mist and br

road continued behind the out-flung curtain of water, and footing on the wet stone was treacherous. With their backs to the solid

was filled with water. They drank. Then Travis filled his canteen while Kaydessa wash

through the roar. She leaned closer

irits! Do you not also

-and to his desert-born-and-bred race all water was a spirit gift never to be taken for granted. The rainbow-the Spirit

debris, Kaydessa obeying his guidance in turn. Then they were on a sloping downward way which led to a staircase-the treads weather-wor

. Travis thought he could make out a trace of carving on the capstone, so

led in tendrils to disguise and cloak what stood there. Travis had fo

in diamonds of four on round tower surfaces. There were no visible cracks, no cloaking of climbing vegetation, nothing to s

green stone set in a simple pattern of checks. This, too, was level, unchipped and undisturbed

ocks, a glassy green which made him think of jade-if jade could

here was a deep silence in this place, as if the air itself swallowed and digested all sound

ad not made up her mind concerning that life-wariness and curiosity war

into the range of those windows to investigate the far side of the towers for doorways. The mist and the message from Nalik'ideyu nouris

a boom. Travis jumped, slew

vy beat-beat ... then a cl

led by the valley walls. She then whistled as she had done when they fro

Come-it is

fearlessly around the base of one of the towers. Travi

a second carved doorway not two hundred yards ahead. The boom-boom seemed to pull Ka